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Voters savage report verdict

THE Hutton report on Dr David Kelly was a ??whitewash??, a new poll shows, and voters now want a wide- ranging independent judicial inquiry into the reasons for going to war with Iraq.

The YouGov poll of nearly 2,000 people, carried out for today??s Jonathan Dimbleby programme on ITV, is the latest to show widespread public scepticism over Lord Hutton??s verdict, in which he criticised the BBC but exonerated the government.

By 55% to 26%, more than two to one, people thought his report was a whitewash rather than ??judicious and balanced??. A similar margin, 54% to 27%, believed that the law lord was wrong to conclude that Downing Street had not ??sexed up?? the September 2002 dossier on Iraq??s weapons of mass destruction.

Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair??s former head of communications, claimed that there would have been several government resignations had ministers and officials been subject to the same